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How GHV Accelerator Is Fostering The Indian Startup Ecosystem By Building Cross-Cultural Partnership With Japan (Inc42)

A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on World Investment that was released in 2016, stated that India was number 10 in the list of the top 10 countries which had attracted the highest FDI inflows globally in the year before (2015). In 2016, as well, India received $21 Bn FDI investments from April-September, a rise of 30% Y-o-Y.

Tony Robbins, an American businessman, author, and philanthropist once very aptly said, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”It is these well-defined goals or milestones that help turn dreams into a reality. Be it a fitness goal, a new career move, or bigger financial aspirations, if followed through, they keep us on track to achieve what would otherwise have only seemed a distant dream.

Adurcup raises Pre-Series A to help restaurants buy essential inventory through a marketplace; expanding to new cities (e27.co)

Adurcup enables restaurants to procure essentials such as food packaging materials, breads, house keeping materials, and pest control materials

Adurcup, an online managed marketplace for procurements needs of restaurants in India, has secured approximately US$325,000 in pre-Series A round of funding from undisclosed corporate investors and family offices, with participation from existing investors.

As a round off to last year’s festive season, the Indian startup industry has been witness to a lot of traded barbs between Flipkart and Amazon India, who are in a race to gain the top slot in ecommerce. It is indicative of the competitive environment within which Indian startups have to make a mark.

How Co-Working Spaces have Changed the Way Entrepreneurs Function (BWDisrupt)

Co-working spaces give you an excellent opportunity to network and share ideas and feedback with other like-minded entrepreneurs.

Co-working spaces have become popular worldwide as they provide entrepreneurs with flexibility, and a fun working space. For a bootstrapped startup spending money on setting up an office can be very expensive and time-consuming. So, working in a co-working space can be the ideal solution to get started. It not only helps save valuable time and money, but can also benefit startups in numerous other ways.

Other People’s Money: Why OPM is the new opium for funded startups (e27.co)

The startup space in India has witnessed an all-time-high in recent times with an influx of funds from all quarters to support its growth. Being one of the most prolific startup nations in the world, nobody wanted to miss out on a piece of this pie and eagerly hopped onto the bandwagon, hoping to give wings to the next big unicorn.

Retaining talent is amongst the key concerns for most businesses. It becomes even more critical in case of a startup since there are anyway limited team members owing to scare resources.

In such a scenario, losing even a single person can disrupt the work and become a big hindrance in the smooth functioning of the startup.

One of the major reasons for attrition is that employee’s feel that their contributions are not valued and their roles not challenging enough. Rewarding them and recognizing their efforts from time to time and developing them to take on larger roles can help change this mindset.

Indian Startups, It’s Time to Play the Game of Chess Instead of Snake & Ladders! (Trak.in)

Nobody said running a startup was easy. A startup’s life is marked by the thrill of the heady highs and rough lows. Of late, the Indian startup industry hit a bottleneck, with funds drying up, as investors have become more cautious about where to park their funds.

It has been a roller coaster ride like the game of snakes and ladders, with the thrill of the climb in the past of couple of years and the sudden rude slide down since the last few months. The dice is clearly not rolling in the favour of startups, with investor interest and valuations reflecting a clear lack of confidence in their capabilities. More than one startup is feeling the bite of competitors at their heels gobbling them up by way of mergers and acquisitions. They have been dumped in the troughs of low valuations and need a lot of luck to roll the dice in their favour and get back on track.

Positioning is a concept that was coined by Al Ries and Jack Trout to help brands set themselves apart in a crowded hyper competitive market. Successful positioning is not simply about knowing who your customers are, it is also about how to appeal to them and entice them with interesting ideas.

Why is it that we don’t see too many businesses talk of or focus on succession planning in spite of the fact that finding the right successor can be an arduous and time consuming process and has a direct impact on the longevity of the business? There is no dearth of examples of succession planning gone wrong even at renowned corporate across the globe. Though the ‘biggies’ are more or less able to withstand the brunt in such cases, for startups, a wrong decision on this front, could even prove fatal.